Indiana

Moore Like David

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Although I had some legal work to do Tuesday, I did watch the funeral for Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer David Moore.   Moore was killed last Sunday in while conducting a traffic stop.  Thomas Hardy has been charged in the murder.  And as I watched the funeral, one thought kept coming back to me.  This entire ordeal has been a turning point for the city.

We all know that last year was not one of IMPD’s finest;  David Bisard, Brandon Johnson, the constant back and forth between the Fraternal Order of Police and the Public Safety Director, the political opportunist organization known as the Baptist Ministers Alliance.   While crime was down overall, there was this growing perception that things were getting out of control.

However, with David Moore’s death, I think the city of Indianapolis got a wake-up call.   We got a stark reminder that police work is very dangerous business.   We learned the hard way that everyday police officers their lives on the line when they leave and go keep our streets safe.  We learned there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop.  And there are some people out there with political agendas who don’t like law enforcement.

But I think the most important thing we’ve learned following the death of Officer Moore is something we’ve known all the time.  IMPD is a lot more like  David Moore than David Bisard.   David Moore believed in serving and protecting the public; even in death he saved lives via organ donation.    The 95% of law enforcement officers in this town go to work everyday with their primary objective being to protect us from the bad guys.  As stated at Officer Moore’s funeral, “evil is the enemy”.   And there are a lot of evil people in this world.  They will shoot officers.  They will shoot each other and will have no regard for the rest of us.

There are a lot of evil people in this world.  Luckily, there are a lot of good officers, unfortunately, with the loss of David Moore, their ranks have been reduced by one.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 02, 2011 (boomark / email).